[Ben] Rhodes: AOC’s Position on Israel ‘the Overton Window Shifting’ – More Vocal Pressure from Left on Israel Than Under Obama

Thank goodness she want a mediocre painter.

Wasn’t

I also think what’s happening here is that old-line Democrats who haven’t really represented their constituents in years are getting displaced by younger ones who don’t give a damn about the pet issues of their predecessors. Israel’s representation in the U.S. government was inevitably going to decline as a result. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-Israel) was a perfect case in point. He was a long-time New York political figure and powerful House committee chairman, but that didn’t stop him from getting his ass kicked in his 2020 primary by a young black nitwit in what is now a heavily minority district.

Yep!

The Democratic party has enabled Jewish Democrats to be over-represented in Congress for decades. Take one example: for 30 years California had two Jewish Democratic US Senators, both of them woman. There are about 1.2 million Jews in California, or about 3% of the population. California, now that the Democratic Party operates on an explicit racial spoils system, is unlikely to award both Senate seats to this small, privileged minority. Latinos make up 38% of Californians, and, as the saying goes: "want to be represented by someone who looks like me"

What's happening now is that the People of Color are standing up and saying: "Thanks for everything, we will represent ourselves now". Boxer was replaced with Harris, the Hindu and black mixed race woman. When Feinstein finally retires she, too, will likely be replaced by some sort of POC.

The Jewish Telegraph Agency (A Jewish newspaper) keeps track of how many of their own are in Congress:

Here are the 37 Jewish members of Congress

Based on their numbers Jews are 3X more common in Congress as in the nation. And because they are almost all Democrats, that means they are somewhere near 6x over-represented in that party.

So, as the inevitable rebalancing happens it's unlikely that the new Democratic politicians, many Latino or other POC, will carry the same support for Israel as the Jews they are replacing.

Of course there is still money as a tool of influence. And rich Jewish donors are the lifeblood of Democratic Party fundraising. Here is the list of top bundlers for Joe Biden in 2020 (from Open Secrets.org) (cut off at $4 million)

Name	City	State	Employer	*Contributions by bundler 1990-2020
Thomas Steyer	San Francisco	CA	Advocacy & Philanthropy	$309,351,096
Haim Saban	Los Angeles	CA	Saban Capital Group	$40,732,811
Karla Jurvetson	Los Altos	CA	Jurvetson, Karla T, Office	$35,174,475
Deborah Simon	Carmel	IN	Simon Youth Foundation	$26,513,135
Susan & Stephen Mandel	Greenwich	CT	Lone Pine Capital	$25,756,068
Reid Hoffman	San Francisco	CA	Linkedin Corp	$21,365,003
Jeffrey Katzenberg	Los Angeles	CA	DreamWorks Animation SKG	$15,493,946
Elizabeth Simons & Caitlin Heising	Atherton	CA	Article 3 Advisors	$15,205,504
Michael Sacks	Chicago	IL	Entrepreneur	$12,390,263
Lise Strickler & Mark Gallogly	New York	NY	Centerbridge Partners	$10,405,871
Jonathan A. Soros	New York	NY	Js Capital Management	$6,778,661
Sonya & Tom Campion	Seattle	WA	Campion Foundation	$6,228,101
Jeannie & Jonathan Lavine	Boston	MA	Bain Capital	$6,121,100
Lisa S. Pritzker	San Francisco	CA	Geolo Capital	$5,745,746
John D. Goldman	Atherton	CA	Philanthropist	$5,698,501
John Doerr	San Carlos	CA	Kleiner, Perkins et al	$5,613,084
Amy & Rob Stavis	Larchmont	NY	Unemployed	$5,414,403
John Eddie Williams	Houston	TX	Williams, Hart et al	$5,401,397
Susie Tompkins Buell	San Francisco	CA	Susie Tompkins Buell Foundation	$5,208,353
Jonathan Gray	New York	NY	Blackstone Group	$4,942,390
Jeffrey Gural	New York	NY	GFP Real Estate	$4,819,594
Patricia Duff	New York	NY	Edwin C Chapman, Md PC	$4,580,059
Neil Bluhm	Chicago	IL	Art Institutes	$4,552,406
Ron Conway	San Francisco	CA	SV Angel Venture Capital	$4,468,952
George Krupp	Chestnut Hill	MA	Berkshire Group	$4,253,596

He also said, “And therefore, it’s going to be harder to just stick to the old line of essentially unquestioning support for the policies of the Israeli government.” And “It’s just simply a fact that there was never this kind of pressure vocally from the left on issues related to Israel during the Obama years.”

So what was that when Obama snubbed Netanyahu from a WH dinner and official recognition of his visit:

"the Overton back door"?

America is pro-Israel because Americans are, not because of Jews in Congress. Plenty of Israel's critics are Jewish and its enemies are of Jewish descent.

As for the JTA list, it undercounts the unaffiliated in Congress. Some of the "Jews" are unaffiliated and simply have Jewish parents.

As for the top donors, Jewish sounding names doesn't make one Jewish. Tom Steyer is an Episcopalian with a Jewish father, who didn't raise him. Jonathan Soros is a son and grandson of atheist antisemites of Jewish descent.